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Abuja-based engineer and electricity consultant, Dike Ejike, has called on the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to urgently consider a request by the Aba Power Limited for a review of its electricity tariff.
The appeal followed a public hearing held in Abuja on APL’s request for electricity tariff review on Tuesday.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelEjike said the review has become imperative following the rising cost of things and the fact that Aba Power Limited, which is the 12th electricity distribution company (DisCo) in the country, had not reviewed its tariff, since it began operations even when other DisCos had done so.
“Both Aba Power and the other electricity distribution firms source their materials from the same market and with the same currency,” Engr Dike stated, emphasising the need for APL’s request for tariff review to be approved.
The electricity consultant explained that Aba Power is the only DisCo still operating the old tariff structure almost a year after others increased theirs by about 300%.
Band A tariff was increased throughout the country from N66 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to N225/kWh on April 3. The next month, it was reduced to N206.8/kwh only to increase to N209.5/kWh in July.
Ejike disclosed that Aba Power still charges Band A customers N117.1/kWh when other DisCos “have been charging N229.5/kWh, about half of the others’ tariff, despite being the country’s youngest DisCo.”
He claimed that Aba charges its customers far lower than what the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), a Federal Government firm, charges it for selling electricity to it due to a lack of stability in gas supply to its generation plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout, Aba.
The electricity consultant further stated that Aba Power must be reeling under a huge sacrificial burden supplying power at a far lower cost than it receives from a government company.
“For a firm that was forced to be in limbo for a whole 20 years because of the machination of a few Nigerians until Vice President Kaseem Shettima commissioned its power plant on February 26, 2024, it must have been a trying period”, he stated.
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He continued: “Whereas the other 11 DisCos plus the six generation companies carved out of the Power Holding Company (PHCN) have received all kinds of Federal Government’s assistance to the tune of over seven trillion naira since the privatisation of 17 of the 18 PHCN successor companies in November 2013, neither Aba Power nor the Geometric Aba Limited, the electricity generating member of the Aba Independent Power Project, has received even a kobo as subsidy.
“The request for a review of the Aba Power tariff should be handled expeditiously”.
